Earthen steel
by Caexah
Summary: After Heaven's Failure the now reborn Shirou finds herself in a new world entirely. She will now have to find a way to make an liveing in the world of Halkeginia and still be happy with her new place as a noble for nothing else than being able to use magic. Troubling times are ahead of the world, but will Shirou be in a position to help now she gave up her dream of being a hero?
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Fate/stay Night nor the idea of Heaven's Failure. I do not own Familiar of Zero/Zero no Tsukaima.

AN/Please review.

AN2/Trying to fix errors in my writeing, do point out if something is wrong and i will attempt to fix it. thank you.

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Cap 1

He knew he was dieing slowly of his gaping wounds. Each breath a was challenge almost too hard for him to overcome. For each second the desire for sleep continued to erode his will to stay awake. His life slowly running out as more and more blood continued to leave his body, as his overuse of magecraft burned his nerves and use of Blade Works fried his mind. Was his eyes open or closed? He didn't know. He couldn't open them, but he couldn't see anything but darkness.

On his knees Shirou couldn't do anything but stare blindly at the starry night sky with eyes wide open yet not seeing anything.

"Are you still alive Onii-chan?" Asked a young voice. He feebly turned his unseeing eyes towards where he thought the sound come from. Did he even have eyes anymore or had they combusted when he wasn't paying attention perhaps?

Shirou couldn't understand the words of the voice, his mind too gone to comprehend the meaning of language. But he wasn't as far gone as not to comprehend names, and he knew the name of this being whose voice cooled some of the blazing torment he was in with merely her voice.

"I-Ily-a"

He could hear his own voice, but he could not feel his mouth moving.

"Yes that is I, my Onii-chan" Said the voice with happiness, yet with a deep sadness. Shirou didn't like having the owner of the voice sad, that felt even worse than these injuries he had now.

"I-llya" I repeated, attempting to sound stern. I didn't want her to be sad so if she would stop with that I would be happy thank you very much.

Shirou didn't think he manged to make his weak voice sound stern at all, but Ilya seemed to get the idea as she laughed a bit at him. That was much better than her being sad the dieing boy decided feeling vaguely happy at making a sad person laugh.

"Only you Onii-chan" Said the young sounding owner of the voice with a giggle.

Again Shirou couldn't understand the words but for some reason he felt proud of himself. He wondered why. Now he thought about it was it natural to have a rib inside one's lung? He couldn't remember if that was the case.

There was silence for a time as he continued to fight a losing battle against his mortal flesh and it's dieing state. Something touched his face with small warm fingers, making him see upwards. It didn't matter much to Shirou, he could see anything but darkness anyway. Whatever he looked up or down didn't matter.

With a willpower he didn't know was required to such an simple action he blindly moved his hand upwards towards where the fingers on his chin was pointing his face. Eventually a hand grasped his hand and moved to where he wanted it. On the owner of the voice cheek, feeling the warm skin of this girl that has come to mean something akin to a sister alive and well. At that moment Shirou could only smile.

Then his little sister's voice said something that sounded very serious, but he still couldn't understand the words.

"Do you want to live?"

"I-l-y-a?" The injured and dieing boy could only mutter weakly. He felt her release his hand she was holding on her cheek, and try at he might he had no power of his own to keep it there. It fell down to his side as his flesh ignored his will. Shirou felt panic rise inside himself. "I-l-y-a?"

Now he felt two hands caress his face, and he felt himself relax slightly.

"You know Shirou... Before Kiritsugu Emiya adopted you he had a family. A loving beautiful wife, and a child. A daughter. Me"

Llya stepped back as she looked upon the broken body of the brother she had hated more than her life before she even meet him. The one she had come to this war to kill, even if he wasn't involved as a master. She had come to participate in the Holy Grail War solely to murder her adopted brother.

The one her own father had abandoned her for.

Or so she had thought. Maybe it would be more accurate to state so had her own Grandfather manipulated her to think. Whatever out of spite for Kiritsugu to set his children up against each other or to help push his own granddaughter harder in her already torturous magecraft training Ilya herself didn't know. Perhaps it was both.

She never planed to talk to him, to sit down to have a conversation with the one father betrayed her for. She had planed to show whatever this Shirou had that was better than her didn't matter when it meet Berserker's blade.

But after their first hostile encounter, which Shirou had survived. They somehow meet in a park where they sat down and talked. After that they had meet frequently in that park to friendly talk mostly amount random things, but also about their pasts.

Her torturing training. Her uncaring family. Her lonely life after her father had abandoned her. Llya didn't say that she was her brother, or that it was the father that Shrou held in such high esteem that had abandoned her.

Her brother had been so compassionate about the injustice in her life and did his best to help her when he could. He cared for her. This boy couldn't lie to save his life and he was incapable of faking affection, and he without hesitation gave her something she almost had forgoten.

A care the lonely girl had only felt from her mother and father.

She fell a bit in love with him right then and there.

Now after various things had happened she had still not revealed that she was in fact his sister. No that wasn't true, they was already brother and sister. They had that relationship. But Shirou didn't know that legally they was siblings, the clueless boy didn't know she was the daughter of Kiritsugu, he didn't know that it was in fact her, Illyasviel von Einzbern, was in fact his _elder_ sister and not the younger sister she behaved and was treated as.

There just haven't been the time for such revaluations.

This wasn't the time neither, but really her brother was dieing. There was no other time. No other time for her to do the duty of the elder sibling.

"I had hated you for years brother, yet now after only days of having meet... you completely turned it around" She said as she looked into those unseeing eyes of her brother. They held no understanding or comprehension. Yet she could see the faint smile appear on his face, that made a smile appear on her face too.

"That is why I can't allow you to die brother of mine, after all what kind of elder sister would I be if I allowed my younger brother to die?"

Crimson lines begun to appear on her body like angry glowing tattoos. Artificial Magic Circuits crafted into her soul and body painfully over the years by her grandfather taken from other the homunculus of the Einzbern family to further her power.

Normally a homunculus of Einzbern would have great power at their disposal, in particulate those of Llya's mother's model had enormous amount of power. Unlike the other homunculus Llya was born naturally out of the womb of her mother, she was crafted artificially but she was also born. In her creation her father seed was used, so she wasn't just the usual model, she was created for power. Even still in the womb her body while not yet born had been manipulated and modified heavily for power. Growing up in pain, they had continued unrelenting to modify her whatever she wanted it or not.

She was created, born and raised for pure power and nothing more.

All in the name for her to control the unstoppable beast that was Berserker to overwhelm any and all competition in the Holy Grail War so that the Einzbern and gain knowledge and ability to use the True magic they had forgotten.

_**Heaven's Feel**_

The goal the Einzbern family had simpleminded sought uncaring of the sacrifices that had to be made to reach it.

That was her purpose. Get that that magic back into Einzbern. That was what she was raised to do. After killing her brother she was supposed to sacrifice her own life for their goal. To be honest it sounded like a good deal at the time. She could to accomplish her only goal in life to kill her brother and they got their magic.

For that they had given her a godly amount of raw power, and a Berserker so physically strong is bordered on the ridiculous only she could control. Now even with Berserker dead she still had her power.

The power that was going to save her brother.

Well not power alone. Right now she was wearing the Dress of Heaven. A mystic code made from the essence of her maid Leysritt when she was deemed a failure as a candidate to be the vessel for the Holy Grail. The Maid's whole purpose in existing was because of that dress. But it could only be used by the vessel for the Holy grail and by one that possess tremendous amount of magical power. Namely only Llya can use it, and only once.

Leysritt had happily sacrificed herself just before Ilya come to her brother's side. The maid wasn't going to live a year longer due to the modifications done to her. So for her last act to have meaning for her beloved master and friend she was overjoyed. She knew what her master was planing, and as long as Ilya would have a smile on her face Leysritt would die happily.

The Dress of Heaven is a mystic code that allowed the user to temporally perform the Fourth True Magic, Heaven's feel, and freely manipulate the unsubstantial thing know as the soul.

Her power flowed out of her in a tidal wave of 'something' not quite solid but entirely to heavy not to have form, it filled the air and somehow made the white haired girl glow slightly luminescent. Making the prestige white color of the dress, crown and hair seem unnaturally white.

Ilya looked like an angle without wings. Eternal and otherworldly. Too beautiful and perfect to exist in the imperfect and ugly world.

Shirou's eyes gained focus and he saw Ilya for the first time since they begun their mostly one sided talk not that long ago.

"Ilya, What are you doing?" He asked with visible effort that made him cough blood from his mouth. A rib did so not belong in one's lung.

"Quiet brother. Let your sister do her duty as the eldest and protect her younger sibling." Then she smiled the most beautiful smile he ever seen her smile at him "Just know I love you follow child of Kiritsugu, my beloved little brother. Mother would have loved to have meet you. Her name was Irisviel she had hair like mine. Just welcome to the family little brother." Rambled Llya on before ending on "I love you Shirou"

The last thing he saw before darkness claiming him was Ilya's hands as they sank into his chest like it was made of water.

Ilya looked at the soul for her brother. It had the form of a sword. She could help but smile at it as set out a warm glow to her even as the dead body of her brother's hit the ground. The body was beyond repair and it was soulless, it was merely a lump of flesh and no longer her brother. She was holding her brother in the palm of her hands in the form of a simplistic straight sword sheathed in the Noble Phantasm Avalon: The Everdistant Utopia. A artifact that was implanted in Shirou to save from many years ago from the fire from the previous Holy Grail War. However the simple sword had attachments that made it not so simple.

Even if the sheathed sword was simplistic the orb sat on the end of the handle to act as counterweight pommel to the blade was anything but simplistic. The orb looked almost foreign to the sword as it was merely clumsy forced together with great force damaging both the orb and the sword. Contained in the orb was a rust orange world of swords dotting the landscape endlessly and gears that you could observe moving as you looked inside it.

Ilya gave it a curios look before she waved her hand over it and it lost the rusty color as it shifted and melded into the sword to proper become a part of it. Looking into it again Ilya could only see shifting colors and swords being made, used, repaired and broken gliding endlessly in it's swiveling mists.

It would be a proper world again when it is settled down again and merged with Shirou's soul, but at the moment Ilya didn't have time to use Heaven's Feel to help the process along. Her time was running short so she had to hurry.

The girl know only one way to save her brother, and she was more than willing to do so.

However before her body would accept it's new owner it had to have a shard of her in it, or else it would reject him. She drew the sword easily, the edge cut effortlessly through the air. Ilya smiled again at her brother's soul. She knew a good blade when she saw one. It may not have the presence of the weapons of the other hero's in this war, legendary weapons as they were, but Ilya knew that this sword would never fail her.

She lightly ran her hand down the edge of the weapon, drawing blood. She could feel the sword's discontent at the action, but allowed it. Without doubt if the cut haven't been a willing action there wouldn't have been a cut at all, the sword would simply wouldn't have been sharp otherwise.

As blood as it ran down the blade rearranged itself into a sort of flowing exquisite script while turning a haunting illuminating color of crimson. While Berserker is gone she still had her implanted command seals shredded into her soul, she granted them all to her brother. Drawing them with the skills of an master artist instead of the crude method they was hammered into her. They was useless now anyway without a Servant. They did however hold shards of her, enough that she was sure that the soul wouldn't be rejected by her body. In a way they was keys while her body was the door.

Ilya sheathed the soul again before turning it toward herself, a determined look in her eyes. She pushed the sword and sheath into her own body in the similar way that she pulled out Shirou's soul.

Than she got to work, and stain of using the Third Magic taking it's toll so she had to work fast.

First she had to connect her brother soul to hers while keep his sense of self and Origin away from her, they would only mess things up right now. Then she slowly begun to merge his soul into hers. While at the same time activating willingly the curse that would have killed her in about her year's amount of time.

Her family to make sure that his tool had little purpose in life and would willing sacrifice herself for them her grandfather and included a self-destruction mechanism in her soul, planted in her Sense of Self. Even if she didn't activate it, it would have killed her in about a year anyway. She couldn't have gotten arid of it with the Dress of Heaven that she now used to prematurely activate it, the curse was made part of her soul before she had been born and removing even with Heaven's feel would severely damage her Sense of Self, which she would be unable to repair since she called the Sense of Self to do it.

Right now as the soul of Shirou was slowly forced into vessel that was Ilya's own body the bomb planted inside her Sense of Self and Origin was making space for the soul of her brother to connect fully to her superior magic circuits and keep the spell going until her brother's soul could support living in this body of hers. She merged the parts of her soul that was now empty of Self and Origin into her brother, becoming apart of each other yet not. The soul may be hers, but if it has no sense of self or origin could it truly be called hers?

In the end it didn't matter to Ilya as she felt herself fade away, starting with the memories of 16 years of suffering at the hands of her grandfather in preparation to this war. The wariness that had been part of her life since she heard that her mother was dead and her father betrayed her lessened as hated and ugly memories disappeared.

It was of utmost important that the magic circuits connected to her soul and body get attached properly and as smoothly to their shared soul, not just for the power it would bring her brother, but because if they wasn't he would die a horrifying death as result if they were not.

Unlike a human the homunculus body of hers is much more connected to her magic circuits, and if they get removed together with her soul then this body will simply stop being capable of holding itself together and will fall apart, literally. In this body magic circuits was not like nerves, but bones and flesh. She would liquidize. Smelting without the heat.

In order for her brother to live she is not only giving him her body, Ilya am also giving him the entirety of her immortalized soul so he can live. What a good sister she was. But honestly, she also wanted some part of herself to survive.

So as her sense of self eroded she smiled yet another smile, one that would have reminded Shirou of his father when he had saved him in the fire so long ago. As she disappeared she whispered into the air with a impish smile on her face, an expression on one that just pulled the biggest prank ever.

"Good luck... Little sister" she muttered as her last memory of the happy times with both her father and mother when she was young faded to white.

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The world registered a abnormality. A soul that was not supposed to exist existed. It's wasn't natural in any case and nothing like it felt before. An Immortal soul. Those wasn't supposed to exist anymore. Had the true magic thingy appeared again after it had removed the memory of it's use?

It had removed them then, and it was going to remove this now.

Without thinking further over it the World banished the soul that it felt didn't belong. It's counterpart Humanity didn't do anything to stop it, the soul wasn't human after all.

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Emiya Shirou woke up with a gasp while sweating heavily. Without looking he moved his hand to the spot at his lower left stomach that he knew had been stabbed with a particular big piece of stone that he had failed to avoid. It had been more or less buried in his flesh so deep that you could see some of it stick out of his back.

It wasn't there. He couldn't feel any wound.

His eyes didn't stay from his surrounding to check what happened to his injury, he was using his eyes to scan where he was. His instincts was running on high alert, the last thing he could remember he was destroying the Holy Grail in the middle of a city.

So why was he in the middle of a forest, also in the middle of the night? One with so big old tress that don't exist in his home city. Not even the trees around Llya's family house in Fuyuki City where the war was held wasn't this this big and that forest had been there since the start of the city. In fact now he thought about it these trees seemed unnaturally big.

The aura he was able to vaguely able to sense from his surrounding screamed supernatural. It was something in the air. Not unnatural, but decidedly supernatural. He wasn't quite sure why he felt that way, but he did. While it didn't instantly set his nerves on edge is was still a feeling he never encountered before.

Granted most things he encountered that gave off a feeling of supernatural was things that wanted to kill him, and by all rights should have easily been able to do so. They was so much better than him in both skill and experience. Not to mention their difference in raw power, which was frankly ridiculous levels of diffidence.

To Shirou this forest that was not normal was not hostile to him, it wasn't friendly neither. It was simply neutral. The power was simply just hanging in the air not doing anything. The trees themselves didn't feel alive and self aware like he first thought they was. In fact now that he was no more driven by instinct he was able to note that the mana in the air wasn't all that much to begin with.

Seeing no threat to his person he begun check his state...

"...Why am I an girl?" _She_ asked herself in a faint voice, noting alarmed that her voice was vastly different then she was used to and much more feminine and younger sounding. Her mind feverish attempted to uncover what had happened from her admittedly foggy memory, and arrived at the obvious conclusion.

"Ah, I am dreaming" Nodded the female Shirou at her own logic as anything suddenly made sense again. For a moment there she thought that she was about to pass out because of her panic rising to her head.

Holy Grail Wars, no problem. Heroic sprites, awesome. Enemies far above you skill level, she don't flinch as she stare death in the eyes. Abandoning her ideal for her childhood friend, painful but Sakura is worth it.

Waking up as a girl in the middle of a forest wearing a nice white dress that ends in a mini skirt and long socks that together attract and show her upper legs in a very uncomfortable manner for a man?

She had no idea how to deal with that whatsoever.

Nice flowing open sleeves though. It was just not something she would personally wear. She was never one for fancy stuff. Much less dresses which is reasonable considering that before waking op she had been a man. Well a teen to be more exact.

Now he knew why the trees seemed so big. It wasn't them that was abnormally large, it was him that was twice as small, with her now being a child and all. When she checked her body for injuries she was sure she should have had, which she now don't, she could easily see that her body was that of a child just going into it's teens.

About 11 or 12 year old she thought. Not that she was an expert of judging the age of young girls by watching their bodies.

Seeing the small things growing on her chest she was happy she now knew it was a dream or she would have fainted in a very unmanly manner. As it was she now had a inner calm that come with knowing the reality that you see wasn't real.

Rising to her feet the girl checked again if there really wasn't anyone nearby. There wasn't. It was entirely possible that she was being observed beyond what she could sense or see, but these wasn't exactly who she could ask about where she was anyway.

The twin moons gave a nice shine down into the forest which wasn't dense enough to keep out the light so she had an easy time to see where she was going. With the beautiful moonlight she took the time to appreciate the tranquil supernatural appearance of the forest and the trance like peace that seemed to surround it.

Never had Shirou seen anything quite like this before. The air was fresh, not like what it was in the city. There wasn't much wind, but just enough to feel it caress your face as it passed. The temperature was warm, yet not enough to make it uncomfortable so.

The only thing that bothered her was the feeling of moving air in places that clearly wasn't a way for wind to hit before she become female as he was wearing pants. But in a very similar way that she took lethal wounds and kept kept fighting she just endured the feeling. Immensely uncomfortable, but moving on through sheer determination.

Not knowing where she was she also had no idea where she going except she was going somewhere, so the girl was essentially just wandering around hopelessly lost. That in itself wasn't a bad thing consisting that Shirou believe she was in a very realistic dream of some sort, however the problem appeared when she wasn't getting anywhere that even looked slightly different after awhile. It was the same trees time after time again.

So Shirou reached another conclusion that made her feel rather silly. Sort of like how one feel after having having a problem doing something for a long time and an incredible obvious solution was right in front of your face the whole time and you first discover it after about an hour.

"Am I going around in circles?" She wondered with a embarrassed blush on her cheeks.

Spotting a nice climbable tree the female Shirou began to attempt to gain a position at a higher ground to see where she was and where she should be going instead of going aimlessly like a moron as she had been doing.

As she began to climb she noted that it is was very awkward to to climb a tree in a skirt, but nonetheless she pressed on. This body of her however showed no problem moving according to her will, it didn't feel awkward or difficult to move in even with the evident size difference be old body and this one. It was like she had been in this body a life time.

In fact, in many ways this body felt easier to move in than her old one. It was nimbler, somehow had faster reflexes, eye sight was better and just over easier to move in. It responded better and faster which was just downright weird.

But hey, it was a dream. Anything is possible.

So now a little girl was sitting high up in a tree after having easily traversed it's height without any difficulty. Overlooking the area she saw lots of tress, a lake relatively nearby and lights in the distance that may come from civilization.

Maybe.

Feeling rather thirsty Shirou decided to go to the lake first to get herself something to drink before leaving for the long trip to the lights she saw. Those lights was quite a distance away.

She had to climb five more trees to locate that lake since she got off the straight line that was the track she had planed. Somehow she always ended up going in the wrong direction after awhile.

Did she always have a direction sense this bad or is this a dream thing?

To be honest Shirou didn't really know. She had lived in Fuyuki City since she could remember and she had only sat foot outside the city enough times that they could still be counted on one hand. She knew that city like the back of her hand though.

That is to say with her new hand she knew where anything was and it's basic functions, but not more than that. Shirou sweat-dropped. Now that she thought about it she didn't go anywhere she didn't go regularly or had been there recently doing the Grail War she had always following someone to anywhere unfamiliar.

But at last she found the lake, eventually, and that was what mattered.

Shirou was happy as she walked up to the crystal clear water to drink. However whatever happiness and peace she may have had evaporated the moment she keeled down to the water for she had seen her refection.

It wasn't the reflection of her male self that looked back, she was prepared for that however so it wasn't that. It was that it wasn't the face of a stranger that looked back from the still water, it was the face of a girl she regarded as a sister, Illyasviel von Einzbern, who looked back with shock clearly on her face, my face.

There was only one difference between what her sister looked like and what was staring back, and that was the light faded pink hair, almost white some places instead of the pure white of Ilya's. It was also more untamed, though not wildly so.

It was unmistakeably Ilya's face she now was wearing.

A voice she knew she heard before but at the time she had been unable to comprehend it's meaning made itself know as it made itself to the forefront of her mind.

'_Do you want to live?'_

"no..." Whispered Shirou in despair as she kept eye contract with the red eyes that had belonged to her sister sitting in her refection face. Her face. Tearing her eyes away she looked down at her young female body, Shirou felt sick.

She was wearing her sister's body.

Shirou could remember now, how Ilya had told they had been family all along, how she said she had loved her as a brother and had forgiven Shirou role in her abandonment, how she was the elder sister...

And how that it was the elder sibling's duty to protect the younger as Ilya had put her hands inside Shirou's chest. How it felt like her very soul had been touched before she fully lost conscious.

Shirou had been dieing and suddenly she woke up in her sister's body. It didn't take long for her to know what had happened, she knew what Heaven's Feel was about. The manipulation of the soul.

But that didn't mean that she had an easy time to accept it.

"No... T-this can't be real!" She stuttered as she moved her hands to let them glide over her face, only to see in horror that the reflection did the exact same thing as her. She could feel her mouth, the shape of her nose, and the softness of her cheeks.

In anger and frustration at her situation the newly reborn girl hit the water that made up her reflection with small fists in a vain attempt to make it go away, to make it not real. It was an attempt that was doomed from the start as she knew now that this wasn't a dream and it was real.

And she knew it.

She did know how long she was kneeling there, hitting the water every time her reflection was about to reform. She didn't know it but her eyes was full of tears and they made they way down her face and joined her attempt to drive away her reflection forever.

Eventually Shirou didn't have the strength to rise her arms anymore and her tears stopped flowing, but her reflection reformed undisturbed by her attempts.

All that was left was grief of losing Ilya.

What hurt the most that it wasn't that she had failed to save Ilya, but that Ilya died to save her. Shirou had trouble understanding why she would have sacrificed herself for him. Ilya would have been alive if she let her die.

'Am I worth dieing for?' Thought Shirou as she looked at the starry sky. She didn't think so. She always thought that her life meant less than everyone else. But clearly Ilya thought she was worth her own life. Why?

Then it hit her, the memories. Not her's, but Ilya's. Forcing Shirou to see her sister's last moments and feelings from her perspective. And most of all she was forced to view her reason. How she was going to die anyway, how Ilya had loved her. The pure emotion that she had felt. The relief Illya had felt when she knew that some part of her was going to keep living, even if only her body.

How Ilya had used A True magic to save her instead. How her sister had sacrificed her body, soul and mind for her.

The whole thing just made Shirou blank out. Her whole head heavy with thoughts and feelings.

Knowing that she couldn't stay here forever just observing the sky Shirou bowed down to drink from the water. It was cold and fresh and helped clearing her head from the depressed daze that had developed while crying. Cleaning her face from the signs of her crying, because she didn't want to see her sister cry and her face was that of her sister's, she moved to walk towards the the lights she was earlier. Her walk was now a lot less enthusiastic that before.

That didn't mean she didn't get any less lost than before, it did however mean that she didn't really care as long as she was moving.

The forest the before seemed to beautiful and dream-like now seemed suffocatingly dark and real, the moonlight gone as formerly clear sky was now becoming clouded. Rain soon fell heavy upon her small fame.

Shirou ignored it. The rain, the cold, the sounds, the darkness, the whole infernal goddamned world.

She disappeared into the forest like a ghost, and minutes later a scream of sorrow cut through the night. She had failed to keep her sister safe, she had failed to protect her family and she couldn't prevent Ilya sacrificing her life for her's. She lost her sister.

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It didn't take Shirou long find find something weird with the world she was wandering in. it isn't every day she see a dragon after all. Well it was more a giant lizard than anything. But still it wasn't any kind of normal.

Then when she finally arrived at the lights, wet and cold, she discovered a village. As in that kind of small communities found in the middle-ages. Wooden houses and no sign of any modem _anything._ No street lamps or anything.

However it looked like there was a party going on in the long house, and with her sharp eyes Shirou could see the light source was torches. Most of the people there was dead drunk. That was understandable if they had partied the whole night.

Shirou just stood there in the darkness for a bit and thought, 'what now?'. Now that she was with civilization, even if it wasn't the one she remember, but where do she go from here?

Do she go and and greet them in wet but prestigious white clothes. Shirou could easily see that the quality of what the people was wearing that the Dress of Heaven she was wearing would be an extremely odd thing to wear. It was classes ahead of what they had. If she did go in to ask for clothes and some food it was likely they they wanted the Dress of Heaven in exstrange, some the Shirou couldn't allow.

This dress is the only physical thing that was her sister's that she had. Except the body but that didn't count. The dress wasn't something she was willing to part with.

As it was she had nothing to trade in the form of valuable items or money, as she had nothing but the clothes she had on. She did have her skill as a magus, 3th rate as he was, but it was exceedingly forbidden to reveal magic to the common man. There are fates worse than death, being catch showing magic to the non-magical is one of them.

Rin had told a bit about the culture about the Magus while they desperately attempted to make the Jewel sword Rin wanted to use to face dark Sakura. Many of those was horror stories about what happened to people not following the base laws set down by the Clocktower. They wasn't pretty.

Shirou also now had the form of a little girl, so performing a physical task is be more or less impossible. Not without giving magic away.

She could always cook, but again that wasn't just something you set strangers to do.

The other way was... stealing.

Something that went against her moral compass awfully. But she had already given up on her dream on being a hero for Sakura. Could she do something against her morals to avoid trouble in this unknown land?

...Yes she could.

And that thought worried her immensely, how much has she changed from the beginning of the Holy Grail War?

And what more was it just himself that changed naturally because of the war, or had Archer or Ilya something to do with it? Or had her previous heroic behavior just been influenced by Avalon and wasn't him at all?

She had so many things connected to her soul it was ridiculous.

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It was a fine expedition. All the people was dead drunk and there was food and beer overflowing, even if the food had long gone cold, but she wasn't picky. So she took a little here and there. She didn't take the beer, she didn't feel the need to see how this body handle alcohol right now.

She had taken the some clothes off the floor where a man had thrown them as he felt more comfortable dancing on the tables naked than with clothes for some reason. They was far too big for her and she just couldn't fold twice her length in so she would have to make crude adjustments later. Could use the cut off cloth to warp her bare feet to act as very coarse shoes. She also manged to find a traveling cloak, for a male three times her size, it would also have to be cut to size.

Then he hit the road. Determined to get to the next civilization to see if she could bled better in there. More people would be nice unlike this small place. It was extremely likely that everyone here knew each other so blending in here was impossible, but with more people it would be easier to pretend she belonged there.

Once again she thought this place was weird. The road was not made of asphalt but made of gravel like in the old days. Even the clothes was easy to tell that they haven't been made by a machine. The stitches was all to human for that.

The lizard dragon thing also. It was weird.

It was giving her a bad feeling about the whole thing and made her think about the user of a certain Jewel sword that she, Rin and Ilya made a rough copy of.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shirou was more embarrassed than she ever been before in her life. She had a bladder issues. It was not a every day thing to have bladder issues in her sister's body, though from now on it seem to be the case.

Her formerly pale cheeks was rosy red and burning hot, walking all funny. Until Shirou at last had to surrender to nature's call less she wet the clothes she had on, and that was something she _didn't_ want to deal with. It had been embarrassing enough to change into them, with closed eyes and fumbling fingers.

It was with crying eyes that she went off the road.

It had been the will of an ma-, Girl, against the forces of nature in a battle of endurance that took hours, sadly for the girl nature was patient and kept building it's forces to put more pressure on the girl. The girl was forced to admit defeat before the nature's forces went through her defenses forcefully.

But Shirou was determined to win the next one. Nature may have won this battle, but the war was far from over.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While walking Shirou had decided to check her abilities. It was difficult to adapt to actually having power to spare. She never did in what could be called her previous life. There it was always scarping every bit of power that he could effort in his pitiful reserves of magic circuits, always coming close to killing herself in the attempt.

All the power was in reality very hard to control. The stick she had attempt to reinforce could tell you that, if you could find what was left of it. The piece of wood had simply turned to dust from the inside out. She had a hard time limiting her power, being so used to use so much of her reserves to do the simplest thing had her reflexively use more than she should, over loading the spell.

She haven't tried Tracing yet. And she wouldn't useless necessary due to her bad magical control. After she got that to the standard she had had back then she wouldn't try, before that it was simply too risky. Rin had stressed proper security measures and preparation. It wasn't for fun the saying 'A Magus is one who walks with death' existed.

Magecraft is _dangerous_. If she had mistakenly performed reinforcement on herself she would have been but a dust pile.

Plus tracing that is more Archer's skill then her's and according to the memories of Ilya she should be able to use it as Archer is still part of him, though now without the 'awareness' that the arm had. If she couldn't she could still learn it in her own time, she knew how to do it after all. Theoretically.

Shirou looked at her arm, it wasn't the tanned arm of Archer's. The arm that had been slowly killing him after it had been implanted after he lost his own. Archer was a heroic sprite made him being a future 'her' (Shirou being a him at the time of this happening) had been the only reason that the imprint had not killed Shrou the moment it happened, and even then it slowly ate away at her soul and circuits.

Servants, or Heroic spirits, was being that was frankly miraculous. People who performing facts so great legends form about them that the faith itself place them upon a throne of power, the Throne of Heroes. In other words they transcend from humans to legends. Beings made of _Power_. At the throne of heroes they are granted abilities that reflect their legend.

They are the best, brightest and strongest, individuals that the world had ever produced. _Ever_.

Archer was one of them.

Rin's servant was a curios case as a Heroic spirit. It was not that he didn't have a legend. He did, as a evil mastermind that almost destroyed the world. He had a contract with the world that made him work for 'her' (the world took the form of Sakura when she made contact with Archer) that in return for the power to stop a large calamity would have him work for her after his death. However immediately after having saved them his allies had betrayed him, helping branding him as the mastermind behind the whole thing and then subsequently executed him.

Then the World made him work for her, which more involved killing large groups of people to save humanity as a whole then as it did battling world ending horrors.

Thus his E rank luck.

E being the lowest rank possible. Or in other words, Atrocious luck.

Archer had undoubtedly earned his place to the Throne of Heroes, even if he wasn't there most of the time due to being away for work.

His arm reflected his status as a 'higher being', and that arm alone contained more power than the past Shirou had in his whole body. When that arm was transferred to her the arm had granted her superhuman abilities at the cost of constant pain. The more she use his power the more pain she would have been in, and the speeding derangement of his body, circuits, mind and soul. Only hindered, but not stopped by the Shroud of Martin.

Shirou squeezed her fist together, her eyes seeing no tan. Only seeing the delicate white fist of Illya now her's hand. She felt conflicted feelings. On one hand she was glad that the arm was gone, on the other it was her sister's arm there was there instead.

As she was sorting out her feelings 8 males appeared out of the woodwork. The thing that alerted Shirou to their presence was not the sight of them as she was busy looking at her hand thinking, neither was it her hearing as she was deep in thought. The thing that made her take notice of the was the invasive smell of unwashed bodies that had not taken a bath in months.

She blinked at them, her nose wrinkled up at the offensive smell. They was clad in haphazard armor that looked a bit unfitting, like it was not made for them. Most of them had a leather breastplate of sorts, one had a metal one. Their sword's design was of the western type double edged one. they looked, very well cared for. All of them also had a bow on their back.

Every single of them looked at the smaller Shirou intensely.

Shirou walked in a big half circle around them, and walking onwards. Keenly aware of their eyes on the back of her head.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxx

"So why didn't we rob her boss?" Asked on of the 8 people looking at the little girl walking away from them.

"Why would we?" Returned the metal breastplate wearing one. "Wait. Don't answer that. It is clear you don't know it. Tell me then, how much could a little girl wearing a worn traveling cloak have on her of value?"

"I... Don't know. She looks like what I heard a noble would look like. She is very pretty. I thought as a noble she would have tons of gold on her" He answered honestly.

The leader smacked him in the back of the head for his foolness. "It is not only nobles that are allowed to be pretty. There are plenty of pretty girls and beautifier woman in the world" Then the leader grimaced "Sadly it is very had to find one that the nobles haven't taken."

One of the other in the group spit on the ground at that in hate. He aimed at a stone he could overlap with an image of a noble, it hit right between the eyes. He lost a sister to the nobles, he never seen her since. "Damned nobles"

"Yea" Agreed the leader with the man. Then he looked back at the girl, he nodded towards her "Her parents must have guarded her obsessionally throughout her life. Never letting her have any kinds of freedom in order to avoid notice. She is most likely a runaway that ran to escape her suffocating family."

"Ah." Nodded the group at their leader's reasoning.

"What worries me is what will happen to the girl from now on. The city is no place for a little girl alone. Beyond the nobles there, there is many other types of people that wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of her"

"Aren't there something we can do?" Asked one of the people.

The leader grimaced "No. We can't go to the city and act as bodyguards, that would just put even more attention on her, and while we may be able to protect her from the criminals there we wouldn't be able to do anything about the nobles. Plus she likely runaway to get away from such protective behavior"

"Can't we take her with us?" Asked the one as asked the questing about why they didn't rob that girl. This time he was smacked to the ground by the force of the hit to the back of his head by the leader.

"Moron!" Yelled the leader at him "What is it we are in the eyes of the world?"

"Criminals that dare go against the nobles" Answered another one, getting tired of seeing the 'moron's' stupid confused face. If that moron didn't have the strength of ten men...

"But we are heroes" Protested the fool.

"Yes we are. But the world don't know that. They don't know how we steal from those that had too much to give to those that need it. To them we are bandits, thieves rebels, heretics and murders." Said the leader.

"But the noble was a monster!"

"Yes, that man committed more crimes against humanity than anyone other than an monster wouldn't be able to do. He deserved to die a 100 time over" The leader agreed whole heartily "But in the eyes of those in power he was a noble and the victims wasn't, and therefore he was 'murdered unprovoked'."

The one that was tired of seeing the moron's face spoke up "Since then we have been running through two countries to escape the massive manhunt of us because of our actions. We have not taken a bath in months do you want to expose a little girl to our kind of life?"

"...No" Answered the moron suitably lectured, looking a lot like an overgrown ugly puppy. "but still, I feel bad leaving a girl that may need help like this."

The leader's face softened "I know, I don't like it neither. But we most concentrate on those we can save, rather then those we can't. And you know the girl has a chance for a good life if she is lucky"

"What do you mean?"

"You know she must have left to seek freedom and money. Those that seek those things go to the Mage Test to see if they are lucky enough to be mages. I know every single one of you did it at last once. If she is lucky enough she are a mage, and get a good comfortable life that way"

"Ah... So she may become a noble" Muttered one of the men.

"Yes" Nodded the leader "That is the girl's only chance. If she is a noble she won't be near the criminals of the city and the other nobles can't force a follow noble even if it a new noble. Unless she gets tricked."

"I hope she don't turn out to be evil, not when we had her in our grasp today." Said yet another cynically.

"We don't kill those that aren't confirmed evil" Said with steel in his voice.

"I know. But I can't help but think about it. I would never kill a little girl on a 'may or may not'. But do you never think about it?"

"I do, however there is lines that will not be crossed, even in thoughts" Said the leader "besides it is not every noble that is evil, isn't that right Bill?"

The man named Bill didn't say anything, looking as stony as ever. That was his kind of thing. He had been a noble that had a really strong sense of justice and couldn't stand the thought about evil. Being one of the funding members of the group he was like a big brother to every single one of them. Couldn't lead worth a damn though. The man had been godsend to the group. A few of the men come and gave the man a friendly clap on his shoulder.

"Now we have work to do, money to steal, evil nobles to annoy and a bath to be had"

"Roger Boss" Replied his group of comrades.

Then they left.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What the group didn't know what that Shirou was able to hear every word they said, even from the distance that no normal person would be able to hear. She didn't reinforce her hearing with magic in order for her to hear. The superhuman abilities she got from Archer that carried to her new form, was not to be underestimated.

She would have to test what abilities that carried over. It would be nice if the superhuman strength was one of them, maybe even a bit of magic resistance. His clairvoyance could also be useful.

The way she had instinctively tuned in on the group of male's conversation indicated that some insights may have carried over. It could also be her instincts that had be heavy affected by Archer's arm and was now her's. It was the same thing basely, at last now it was as she had no way to get arid of Archer's spiritual presence inside her.

What she did know was that she gained the ability to speak languages she haven't learned. Yet another ability from the Heroic sprite no doubt. After all Servants know any languages even if they did not know it when they was alive.

There is numberless bonus to being a heroic sprite, even if the massive downside is that you are dead. Making all the abilities useless.

The 'heroes' back there clearly did not speak Japanese nor English which was the only two languages he knew. Japanese because she lived in the country and English from school. It also didn't sound like that German that Ilya sometimes use when she is distracted.

It sounded weird.

Then there was they things they said. Nobles? Mages? Mages test? Beautiful people getting kidnapped?

Mages as in magic mages? Magecraft?

The whole thing was _weird._

This... isn't anywhere she knew of.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Finally the city come into view for the traveling Shirou. The big stone walls around it enforced the middle age feel of everything. The walls looked relatively new, not something build hundreds of year ago.

The gate of big and wide and there was constantly going people in and out of it. They all had the same middle-age clothes and tools. But she already knew that. She had been walking on a populated road for awhile and had been observing people and listening in on convocations of those around her.

Shirou now knew for certain that they was not just role-playing living in the middle-ages. The city names, the currency which is real gold, the tools, and the poverty. The last one was more convincing than the others, after all who wanted to live in poverty?

The land was beautiful though. It seemed more... alive and vibrant than she ever seen. The air more fresh. The sun was shining warmly. She breathed in deeply, enjoying the feel of the warmth on her face and fresh air in her lungs. Her body felt great. She couldn't help but smile.

Still as she got near the city she pulled up the her hood so not to show her face, clearly remembering what those 8 unwashed people had said about beautiful people. Though it felt _wrong_ on a masculine level thinking herself as beautiful, but her sister was beautiful in her opinion, unnaturally so, and since she was in her body right now Shirou must by logic being beautiful.

People looked oddly at her cloaked form, but nobody called out to her. It wasn't like cloaked people was unusual, seen frequently on travelers, but seeing a cloaked figure half the height of an normal man with his/her hood up to hide the face on a sunny day was worth a glance if nothing else.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Patrick Bonneville whose runic name is 'Dirty water' sighed as he learned back in his chair bored out of his mind. Sure he had an easy job and sure he got fine income. But damn it he wanted something to happen.

Don't misunderstand him. It wasn't that he wanted a harder job. He hate work after all. He just wanted an _easier_ job. One where he has to do even less.

As it was his job was to give a Mage Test to those that ask. While that may sound like good honest work, it wasn't nearly as hard as it sounded like. All he had to do was to make people touch a crystal ball and tell of the person was a mage or not. If the person wasn't a mage he tell the person 'Go away common, stop wasting my time' if the person was a mage he was activate another artifact that called another noble, give the new noble some money for some proper clothes and a good hotel and tell him or her to come back the next day at 12 to be picked up.

Simple.

Of course he didn't steal the money he was to give the new noble, he wasn't able to. The box with that money would first open after he activated the one to call a mage here. It was too risky then as the mage who come would be able to grudge if the new noble have gotten that money. And noble or no noble, getting catch stealing from a government organization such the Mage school is a big no-no.

A shame really, he could use some more spending money.

He let out another sigh.

He was so damn bored.

Another person stepped inside the building, a little cloaked figure less then half his height.

'A Child?' he thought uninterested. It wasn't the first time he seen something like this. A person coming to take the test in some kind of disguise. 'Is the test really so embarrassing to fail?' He thought totally forgetting that he himself went to his in disguise.

He had been dared by his group of friends to come, but he didn't want to be seen fail so he had gone in a disguise. Well they had been friends, but now they were just... commoners. The day after he had tested a mage and spent the rest of the day taunting his 'friends' about his ability and new money.

Of course that ended with him getting robbed by his own friends and had to meet the mage from the school in the horrible poor clothing that his former friends left him with after they had knocked him out.

But he didn't remember that. He had never been anything other than a noble. Always been and always will be.

Anyway he dismissed the child as something interesting from his thought. Just another child hoping to become a noble. This one didn't even have a creative or interesting disguise. Not that it wasn't effective, he couldn't even see if this child was a boy or a girl. The face enveloped by shadow of the hood.

"Well look what the cat dragged in. here for the mage test? What am I? saying of course you are" He stated looking bored. "Well get to it. The crystal ball is right there. Put you hand on it"

Patrick pointed at a high table where a crystal indeed was laying innocently.

The child hesitated a bit, a common thing that nearly everyone did, before nodding. Having to stand on a chair to reach the ball the child's hand slipped out of the cloak. Patrick noted absentmindedly that the child had nice looking hands. Was the child a girl?

The crystal glowed softly.

'Well wasn't this interesting?' He thought bored as he touched a big lock that then transformed into a bird that flew away. Opening the now unlocked chest he picked up the pose of coins and threw it at the child.

"Well, congratulation on becoming a noble i guess" He said as the girl easily catch the money. "Now, tomorrow at noon a transport will be here to pick you up so that you can begin your new life. It will be in you best interests to buy some clothes and sleep at a hotel and take a bath. It wouldn't do to look like a peasant after all"

Then he dismissed the girl. The girl nodded and left.

Patrick leaned back and sighed once again, bored at he ever was, and complained that his easy job wasn't easier.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'Well that was easy' Thought Shirou, feeling vaguely amused. The pose of money weighted nicely in her pocket. Though right now she was beginning to feel rather tired. She had walked from the night into the day and it was now about noon, at a guess.

So she would go get something to eat, then clothes, then check into a hotel, get a bath and sleep to tomorrow. From what she observed of the currency she would have more then enough money to do it all and still have lots of money leftover. She would be able to live a week of this easily.

It was with a bright smile under her hood that she went into a bar/restaurant that while wasn't the finest one she saw still looked reputable. Well cleaned at last and with good prices.

She walked out well satisfied and full.

Then the clothes.

She walked inside the shop with a yawn, she was getting really tired and the food didn't help any. Her hood fell backwards as she opened her mouth wide, showing her face. She rubbed her eyes to some of their tiredness out of them, they kept dropping.

"Can we help you little lady?" Asked a woman behind a disk sewing something on a table. It looked like a shirt. The woman herself looked older middle-aged, with good looks for one her age. She most have been something when she had been young.

The shop was empty except for this woman, but Shirou could hear faint sounds from above. It looks like this shop had it's customer area here downstairs while having the work place upstairs. The shop was quite nice.

"I wanted to get some proper clothes." Shriou held up her hand so show the too long sleeve "Some that fit me."

"We can help you with that. May I ask what is that you need the clothing for. An event?" Asked the woman curiously as she laid her work away from her.

"I took the Mage test, it tested positive so I will meet someone tomorrow. I was told to go get clothes" Shirou answered as she tried to suppress a yawn, she failed. "I wanted a fitting and three sets of clothes before noon tomorrow"

The woman's eyes widened at that, it really seemed that becoming a mage was a big thing "Then a congratulations on your new status is in order." She gave a elegant bow and a kind smile.

Shirou smiled back and blushing a little "Thank you"

"If you would?" The woman asked leading as she gestured for her costumer to follow her to an area of the shop that was closet off from view by a wall of cloth, this was the fitting area. It was shielded from view for privacy.

"I will send down one of my apprentices to help you disrobe and do the fitting if that is alright with you, she need the practice. Both in dealing respectfully with customers of an higher rank and how to do the fitting" The woman asked respectfully.

Shirou blushed at the thought about more people seeing her almost naked, but she couldn't deny a honest request from the woman.

"Yes. That would be fine, though I do not know much manners beyond being polite myself." I admitted, before telling a little lie, going with what she heard the 8 men from the road talk about. "And... I have never been... um... disrobed before anyone but my family" A good thing she still had Ilya's underwear or she would have been even more embarrassed. That reminded her. "Um... Can I buy underwear here too?"

"I see." Nodded the woman at the admission of Shirou's discomfort in showing skin to anyone. She looked like she just had something confirmed. Likely the story that she was a sheltered girl hidden away because of her looks then ran away was a thing she had suspected was Shirou's circumstances. It was a lie that could explain a lot about all her issues about not knowing things that was common knowledge. "I will tell the girl of your discomfort, she will be careful." The woman promised serenely "And yes you can purchase underwear here. I will give you three pair for free for you help in teaching my apprentice" She added, sweetening the deal to the uncomfortable girl.

"Thank you." Thanked Shirou "May I ask your name?"

"Oh my, I'm sorry. My name is Emma. The girl I am going to get is named Elizabeth" Said Emma blushing a bit in embarrassment at her breach in manners.

"I'm sorry too then, as I did not introduce myself too" Dismissed Shirou the apology. "My name is Shirou"

"A strange name" There was a question in the woman's voice.

"It has always been my name" Admitted Shirou, lying a bit once again. She did have a name before the fire that cost her her memory, she could couldn't remember it.

The woman accepted the answer, both of them. She got an answer on that her customer didn't know why she was named such and that she didn't rename herself after running away from her family.

"Please wait a few minutes and Elizabeth will be here."

Shirou nodded in acceptance and the woman left.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emma was walking towards the stairs while thinking. She rather like this Shirou girl that was waiting. She was polite and didn't lord her new status. A bit sly. A runaway that got lucky.

After having walked up the stair to the work place she opened the door after knocking. Inside there was three girls working on various clothing. Two of them was very beautiful while the 3th was above average but with a big bust to make up for it.

All of them was runaways that had wanted to escape their family almost caging them inside of their home. Grated they had been caged with good intentions, with a noble saw them they would have been 'hired' by them. And by hire she meant force them. Not always physically, a favorite tactic that the nobles use to avoid being seen as evil by other nobles was to threaten the family's life hood. Driving the entire family from job and home.

But being caged more often than not lead to the bird wanting to taste the freedom all the more. Leading to runaways.

Almost always these girls seek to become nobles. Sadly almost always they have no magic. Then their choice is either to get a job or go back to their family. However being caged their entire life they have no knowledge about jobs. Some of them are gathered up to become prostitutes by the darker aspect of the city. Most of them are offered jobs by the local shops and become eye candy, but offered little else in terms of learning.

These girls was people that she had rescued. Not to be eye candy, but to train up to become tailors. They had the ability and talent.

It was a regular thing. That she rescue those so called 'princesses runaways' as they was called by those in the city. She then offered them jobs at the stores that she knew would treat them kindly, if sternly. She did keep those with talent in sewing to herself though, teaching them how to survive outside their cage.

She did it in memory of the time she herself had been a princesses runaway and almost ended up a beggar but was reduced and teach the way of a tailor.

Now she had three 'failure princesses' working for her in the store she inherited from the one the rescued her. She was content in her life.

But that didn't mean her girls was.

They had big dreams when the left their families. Gold, magic and power was what they sought, long working hours was what they got. They didn't voice it aloud, as they was grateful for the job, but they was resentful of the world and their place in it.

And they absolutely loathed those that succeeded where they failed.

While that was fine, she had done it too once upon a time before she dropped it for gratitude that one reached her dreams. Well, there was the Many, many after she had been saved herself that she had loathed them herself, but in the end she dropped the pointless hated.

What was not fine was that these girls can't control themselves enough to not let that hated show both in their work and on their faces. They needed self control and discipline. Else they would be unable to work here.

It was a question about professionalism. This was a good store that has a good reputation even among nobles, and she take pride in it and would protect it. Those girls was not caged princesses anymore, they are her workers. And they would neither learn or get fired.

That is how it is in any workplace.

"A new order?" Asked the big breasted one quietly, working on a pair of pants. After she had gotten over her shock of the new order in her life she had been working hard on making a living. She absolutely didn't want to go home to her family. As far as Emma could understand her family had arranged her marriage with a person she never seen before and wouldn't meet until right before they was to be married.

She didn't want that so she left. She already knew a bit of sewing and how to clean, having nothing else to do in her life. She was able to keep her dislike of nobility to a minimum as she found herself rather liking her new job. Still jealous of the new mages.

"Not yet." Marry looked up at those words, knowing what they meant. She had been tested and barely passed. And in barely passed she meant that while the noble didn't catch her look of loathing his servant did quite clearly, the servant didn't say anything though. The poor girl appeared to be agreeing with Marry on the issue.

She got a massive earful from Emma that had been observing the whole thing.

Marry had then been semi ordered not to say anything about the test to the others. With a tiny grimace she went back to work.

The two others looked at Emma curiously, wondering what she meant.

"Elizabeth, there is a client I want you to fit for measurements down stairs." Stated Emma "She is a bit sly so make sure you make no comment or reactions about anything."

Elizabeth stood up with a smirk "Is she that ugly?"

The nineteen year old girl was beautiful. Blonde hair flowed down her back in a golden waterfall. Fair white skin that may be a little too pale to be natural. An aftereffect of her tighter cage without much light. Light blue eyes. Nice modest curves, nothing too big or too small.

Emma gave the girl a hash glare and said warningly. "Elizabeth"

The arrogant girl lost her smirk, grimacing. She knew better than to insult the customers, but be damned if she did it anyway. She couldn't help it, it was a reflex.

As she walked over to Emma standing at the door she lost the grimace and instead began smiling a soft accepting smile. A fake smile, and everyone in the room knew it, but the customers didn't and that was what mattered.

Emma gave the girl a glance up and down to check her appearance, before nodding and moving out of the way. Elizabeth's smile was good enough. "She is in the back already. Remember to act professional no matter what happen"

the blonde gave the woman yet another curios look before she walked out of the room and downstairs, Emma following behind.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Elisabeth wasn't stupid. She was far from it. She had a keen mind that noticed lots of things that people try to hide, and most of all are able to use that knowledge to draw a conclusion based on facts. Which is more than the usual person was capable of.

So as she walked down the stairs she knew something was up. She had noticed the way Marry had reacted to Emma's word. The slight tensing of her body and little grimace told Elizabesth they had reminded her friend of an unpleasant memory.

The conclusion she could draw from that was, 'Marry had been called in a similar fashion and found whatever happened thereafter unpleasant'.

Eliszabeth frowned mentally while her real face was smiling an angelic smile.

Emma was more unreadable than usual, which in turn told Elizabeth about the seriousness of the situation at hand. That said to her that she must not fail fitting this sly person by any means necessary, whoever that may be.

Or how ugly she may be.

Mentally preparing herself she near silently pulled the cloth that acted as barrier from the rest of the shop slightly to the side so she could walk inside, and stopped. She barely noticed Emma coming in behind her.

Before her stood a girl. A really beautiful girl. Elizabesth was a bit vain, and she knew it, but there was a difference between her and this girl's look. Her own beautiful could be summoned up in the word 'striking'. Her appearance strike anyone in the face and rub it in afterward for good measure. It was not a thing you could ignore even if you wanted to.

But this one's beauty is, unearthly. This one looks like what she would imagine a snow fairy would look like from the stories she read as a child with short and slender build, her hair as white as new fallen snow and had unnatural flawless pale skin. Then there was the bright ruby red eyes, power was behind those gorgeous eyes. Too much power to be human, too beautiful to a monster. The girl's hands a little too perfect. The girl's face a little too exquisite. The girl's lips, a little to inviting.

At the last thought she snapped out of it a little embarrassed inside. The whole thing took less than a second and she didn't let her angelic smile drop even a tiny bit, then she was moving again.

A second later her mind had committed the girl to memory, another second to gather the clues she could find about this girl. At the dawn of the 3th second she felt hate and jealousy towards this girl, not for her beauty but for her success where she had failed.

This girl was a new noble.

It was with considerable amount of willpower that she didn't throw a scathing remark at the girl, and she was only just able to keep the smile on her face. The girl blinked at her innocently and she felt an urge to claw her eyes out.

Oh, Elizabeth knew that the girl was innocent, but right at that moment it felt like she was being mocked because of her failure.

It was only because of Emma's presence she controlled herself. Elizabeth knew what this was now. It was a test.

She also knew that if she didn't pass it there would be consequences.

With her realistic fake smile Elizabeth asked the girl as she gave a small bow of (fake) respect. "You ordered a fitting my lady?"

"Please call me Shirou" Requested the girl, looking a bit put off by something. Maybe she wasn't used to such manners yet, she was a new noble after all. "And yes, I have asked for a fitting"

Elizabeth could feel some of her anger smooth over when she heard Shirou's voice, it sounded young and warm. Beautiful and kind. The blonde had expected it to sound cold, like what a snow fairy would sound like in her head, full of snow and ice. But Shirou's voice was like warmth, like summer and sunshine with a slight hint of power.

Now her resentment was down to an controllable level and she mentally gave a sigh of relief because of that. She didn't want to fail the test after all. She went to work with a slightly less fake smile on her face, doing her the best job she could.

Resentment, jealousy and hated had after all no place in self-respecting professional's ability to work. And Elizabeth was aiming to become the very best at her job.

Emma that was standing in a corner silently gave a small almost proud smile at her apprentice behind her back.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Are you saying you want pants instead of skirts?" Asked Elizabeth with a raised eyebrow holding a lest of Shirou's measurements. Skirts was standard wear for nobel girls and woman, for a nobel girl to wear pants would be an very unusual sight.

Shirou blushed embarrassed as she remembered the Dress of Heaven she worn before she stole something else. She had it wrapped up in her cloak at the moment, hidden from sight "I find skirts a bit too... breezy. Never really worn any before except once"

"I see" The blonde said 'kindly' "The costumer's wish is our command. Your three set of clotheing with pants instead of skirts will be done and ready to pick up at nine"

Shirou gave a small bow as she left the store pulling her hood up as she went "Thank you"

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She quickly brought a backpack from one of the shops to store her Dress of Heaven in. it would be easier to hide and carry around that way. Then she went for a hotel.

It wasn't the best hotel, wasn't the worst either. It worked for Shirou that was trying to conserve money.

Then she took a bath and went to sleep feeling safe after locking the door from the inside. There's a sliding lock like you normally use on a fence only heavier and made of massive iron.

She was mortified about the bath though, and it took a lot longer than it should have with her eyes closed. But bathing took a certain degree of touching what you wanted to wash.

She was emotionally and physically tired after the long day as she finally went to sleep.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Now wearing clothes that fit her Shirou was walking towards the Mage Test place at eleven o'clock, her backpack over her shoulder and now wearing her cloak. She had also taken the time to get some proper shoes, she had been too tired yesterday to buy some so she had to do it today. Luckily she didn't need to have made a pair of custom shoes that would have taken time to make. They had some in stock her size.

As she arrived at the place she could see a carriage outside of it. It had a chest upon it, the symbol was a stylish pentagram with a book in the middle. There was a fine white horse standing at the front of the carriage. Even Shirou who didn't know anything about horses was able to tell this was a good strong animal and well trained.

There was a small crow of children that admired the horse, but they didn't go close. Some adults also admired it. The horse observed them with a bored glance.

Shirou guessed this was her pick up that the guy that stood for the testing yesterday mentored. This was more grand than she thought would pick her up though. It seemed that being a mage is a really big deal and practiced openly unlike what it was in her world.

And it was quite clear that this wasn't her world.

She had resorted to just go with the flow on the matter less she get an headache and see where she end up. It matter had acally disturbed her far less then the gandre switch. Different world she could deal with, having a female body... not so much. And it was made all the worse since it was her sister's body.

She knocked on the door to the fancy building keenly aware of the people that was observing her, many with jealousy.

"Who is it?" Asked an voice from the inside irritable "There will be no tests today if it that you're after"

It was the noble that did the test. He sounded restrained, like he wanted to yell but stopped himself just before he did it. Shiou guessed it was because the man had a guest.

"It is the tester from yesterday, I wanted to come early" Shirou answered honestly and calmly.

"Ah, yes. Come in, come in" There was a faint note of relief in the man's voice. Maybe he didn't like his guest and wanted to get whoever that may be out of his door as fast as possible?

The person in there drinking tea with the employment was a guy. Past the prime of his life but not yet old. He had graying red hair and a small beard. His dark eyes looked bored, but sharp, when he looked at the test man. He had a stern air about him, though that may be the disapproving frown on his mouth.

Then the man turned towards her, and he frown deepened a bit more at the sight of her pants. He seemed otherwise approving to the new member to the ranks of nobility.

"Child... what is your name?" He asked in a smooth voice.

"My name is Shirou" Shirou answered in her clearest voice.

The man gave slight frown and then corrected the mistake he saw in her introduction "When you introduce yourself to those of higher rank you address them as 'Sir'. You may now be above the rank of commoners, but are still the lowest rank of nobles"

Shirou nodded at the adjustment, not being ashamed or angry at it. She took it for what it was, a correction to faulty manners, and tried again.

"My name is Shirou Sir.

The older man nodded approving, both at that Shirou adapted to the adjustment, and that the girl took it with maturity.

"My name is Amparo Mattie Travis, of the noble family of Travis. A triangle class mage" Was the more grand introduction of this older man. "You have a strange name child"

"My father gave it to me sir." Shirou said a bit proudly.

Amparo smiled a small bemused smile as he rose from his seat "It isn't a bad name child, only strange. But we have time to talk about this on the way, there is a long way to the academy from here and we have no reason to waste time. There is much I have to teach you"

Without even looking at the test guy, Amparo had dismissed him as someone below his notice, he walked towards the door. He had also been the one that had picked the guy up so long ago, and had regretted it. He had acted all high and mighty, throwing around his new title in a very plebeian way that made him feel disgusted. The then boy had been unwashed too and sitting in a carriage with him had been uncomfortable for the higher ranked noble.

The personally of the boy was even worse. Near impossible to teach due to arrogance he gotten in rising above the common people, somehow believing himself the highest rank of nobles. The boy had of course been disciplined, but didn't learn. Didn't have much in the way of magic neither, not even a dot mage. Only able to do a few water spells.

He was the type of person that almost made Amparo stop doing the pick 'up job' that he was doing out of enjoyment. He was rich enogh to go without working after all, he didn't need a job. He did however find enjoyment in being the first one to meet the 'unpolished jewels' as he like to call them.

The was the trash, as the test person was part of. Only vaguely remembered because they created a feeling of dislike and disgust. There was the normal, the ones that you don't remember because they are so... normal. Nothing noticeable with them. Then there the 'gold', those with talent and mind. they will be known through the land and will be skilled and powerful. Then there was the Jewels, those with an intangible legend in the making. Those that have ability to stand at the absolute peek in whatever they set out to do, and have have their names sung for thousands of years afterwords.

It was the 'gold' and the 'jewels' that he keep traveling around the country and pick up those of common stock. To see them before they shine.

However needless to say 'Gold' and 'Jewel' are incredibly rare find, hidden among the excessive amount of trash and normals.

Now here was another with potential to be 'gold' or a 'jewel' and he was looking forward to teach her what she needed to reach as high as she could.

Shirou walked out behind Amparo with her bag where a servant wanted to take, but Shirou refused to let him have it. Under Amparo's frown she explained that it contained something of great sentimental value to her. Her eyes gained a steely glint.

Amparo let it go.

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Walking down the hallway Amparo didn't even care to notice the fine art hang on the walls. He wasn't interested in those. Never had been, never will be. The servants that bowed at him as he went past was of no interest neither, they may as well have been air.

Reaching a grand wooden door with caving on he knocked three times and went in. there standing up and looking out of an big window stood a woman. She was older than 80, yet seemed stronger then one still young.

She sent off waves of magical power that Amparo was easily able to feel, and he knew she could crush him as easily as breathing should she so desire. It was an insight he made every time he meet her, yet it seemed as new and scary as the first time.

She was Madeleine Lilia Ayers. The greatest mage in Tristania, and the leader of the schools in the country. She is the one every mage academy report to and she in turn report to the leader of the country, which is right now a regent by the name Cardinal Mazarin. It is also from her that word pass from the leader of the country to the schools.

Her eyes looking out of the window starring at nothing but the blue heaven, yet seemed to see more than the sky she was looking upon.

"You have brought an interesting child Amparo" Said Madeleine softly without turning around.

"Thank you arch-mage Ayers, I found her very ingesting myself. I assume you already know where I plan on sending her?" Asked Amparo, knowing that somehow the woman did. It wouldn't surprise the upper middle-aged male that somehow the woman could read thoughts.

"I do" Replied Madeleine still softly. "And I approve. There is no need to test this one, just send her to the academy. Their start is soon, so you may wish to hurry. The papers for the girl's registration as a noble and enrollment into the academy is on my disk. When done please leave me."

Amparo did as Madeleine said, but paused at a slot where Shirou's Runic name was to be written. Normally the test that the new noble go through are observed and a runic name is given off that performance.

"Write 'Steel'" Said the Arch-mage, still not looking at him. Making the girl 'Shirou of Steel'.

The male obeyed without question, knowing that somehow Madeleine was right. She always was. After he was done he left.

The arch mage glanced at him briefly as he left. As soon as he was out of the door her magical pressure increased as she went back to look out the window, the image only she could see become more and more clear as magic build up. If Amparo was in the room he would have been on his hand and knees sweating unable to stand.

The image she could see in the sky showed a little white haired girl follow a servant towards a wandcrafter. An a craft she is also the highest leader of, much like she was with the schools.

The old woman could sense the power within this child. Amparo was still young and while he was insightful he lacked the ability to sense the sleeping power with in this 'Shirou', only able to sense the active part of the girl's power. That power alone was enough for Amparo to send the girl to the finest academy they had, so it wasn't small.

However the power which slept outdid the power awake by several magnitudes. Someday the girl may even more powerful magically then her. She who is called Archmage of magic. It was not the first time the arch-mage had seen someone unnaturally strong, she herself was one, Karin was another but she stopped her advancement in magic and settled down, Karin's youngest daughter with void element the 3th and the crown princesses are the forth. Madeleine could feel more powerful magic existences in the world, some who are carrying the taint of Void.

The times are getting interesting.

She could feel it, the world was moving, rumbling under their feet. Soon everything will break lose uncontrollable, but nobody knew it but her and she would do nothing but watch the events out-fold. And the events will happen, it was predetermined and if she fought it she would die. She would keep an eye on things, after all she was an observer and the sky her eye.

She wouldn't want to miss a single minute. History was in the making, the void awaking once again as they sometimes did before troubled times. 'Or did the troubled times happen because of the void?' She wondered idly. Somehow all those voids always seemed to be in the middle of anything important.

She would observe and then guide when the time was ready, as she always done. Leave the hard work to someone else, she wasn't as young as she had been.

'Why do I feel like it would be a funny idea to feed this girl ancient dragon blood and rename myself Merlin?'

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a grand building Shirou was walking towards following a male servant, a butler if you will. There had been put a lot of effort into making this building look as good as they could. It was multi-floored and had very high to the ceiling, wide open hallways. Made of a light gray stone that was nice to look at. Very clean. Statues of people here and there that had gotten their focus here and then later become famous. There was glass cages with some of their wands, swords or artifacts.

The entrees hall was a room that was so impressive that they decided that it being on one floor wasn't enough and the second floor ceiling would do. The second floor in the room was a balcony around the edge with stairs leading there, there some of balcony that reached further out into the room. Likely the place for a person to hold a speech.

Shirou had never been in such a building before, and was feeling rather impressed by the feel of the building. It's magnificence had wight that pressed down upon newcomers. It was an art piece of an building. And it was ancient, yet so preserved. It had history, she could feel that.

A cough interrupted Shirou's attempt so see it all, and generally acting like a curious child. It was the servant that was looking at her with a bemused smile on his face. With her cheeks red from embarrassment Shirou began to walk again. Some of the other people had also seen the girl stop and stare in awe, many scoffed at the plebeian in their mist. A pretty magical plebeian maybe, but a plebeian none the less.

The servant walked before her turned and gave a exaggerated bow and declared in a likewise overdone proud voice. "Welcome to _'Congregatione Magia_'. This is the greatest collection of magical knowledge in all of Halkeginia. Books, artifacts and ingredients are gathered here from all over the world. This is also here most research on magic take place or are funded from. This is the greatest pride of Tristania and one of it's two crowing jewels. The other which is the Tristanian Academy of Magic."

Shirou giggled on instinct before she could control herself, and then blushed at it. She never giggled before, because of male reasons. She decided to ignore that she giggled, that was something she didn't want to deal with right now.

The servant raised an eyebrow at her and she explained not wanting to offend.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. You were just overdoing it a bit too much"

The servant gave a carefree grin at that "Don't worry about it, I was doing it on purpose, though you would be surprised how many don't notice that. Taking anything so seriously all the time"

Shirou had some trouble with magic not being serious. In her world magic was dead serious, and most of the time it didn't stop at death as they would begin to experiment on you corpse. But as it was she was just rolling with it.

Magic was very different here after all. She was on the way to get a magic wand, which more or less spat on all she knew about magecraft. Really a wand? Seriously?

It was quite obvious that magic wasn't being practiced in secret to preserve mystery, and thus power. Here they had magic academies and stuff. Shirou didn't know how exactly their magic works as of yet, but she was excided to find out. Her father didn't really teach her much and was against teaching her anything from the start, and what he did teach was more then a bit faulty. Making her nervous system into magic circuits was _not_ the way to go around such things. They wasn't even good magic circuits.

Now here she had a new chance to learn magic, correctly this time. It even come with bonuses as Amparo explain on the way. A monthly income for being a noble in services to the crown, in return mages had to defend and protect the land and such stuff she likely would have done anyway.

She may no longer walk the path of a hero, as closely anyway, but that still it didn't mean she was going to turn into an uncaring cold individual that couldn't care less for other people lives. She is a good person, she just had to stop being so reckless about it. And to stop letting people take advantage of her kindness. Turn down her obsessive tendencies with only being happy if she was making people happy. Be a little more carefree and content. Spend a little time on herself and her needs.

And to follow her heart a little more instead of following an impossible ideal that would bring him nothing but pain in the end, cue Archer, and desire to kill her past male self.

As it was she was just rolling with what was happening and replied to the servants comment about how everyone was taking anything so seriously.

"Life can be serious business, some just like to invest more" Said Shirou with a drag of her shoulders in a gesture of 'If they want to be serious than they can be as serious as they want, it don't brother me neither way'.

The servant again raised an eyebrow at the answer "That is an interesting statement and highly expressive shoulders you have."

Shirou blinked at the unusual statement from the servant "Thanks?"

"No problem" answered the servant brightly moving once again and shifting subject to what they was here for. "Your first wand is free, everyone's is. It is part of the rules. However if you lose it you will have to pay for a new one. If you want a staff or ring instead of a wand it also cost money."

"Staff? Ring?" Questioned Shirou. She only knew about the wand.

"Ah. You see there are different focuses that help the mage control their magic into spells. The strongest focus is the Staff since it can contain more magic, but it is also the largest and the most clumsy of the three. Only powerful mages can draw uses of a staff since few possess the magic necessary to require a staff to cast their spells. Most square class spells require a staff or an absurdly expensive specialized focus. More or less, a staff is for brunt force." Explained the servant but was far from done as they walked up some stairs.

"The wand is the most common tool, or holy instrument if your into that, used by the mages. It is the most accurate of the three and the one that allow the best control over a mage's magic. It is however fragile and can easily be lost."

"Then last there is the focus rings, and the most unused one of the three. It is the one that are the hardest to use and can be very expensive. It is the focus that allow the last amount of access to one's magic, but are hard to lose if you keep it on your finger. It was also the focus the Founder Brimir, who used four rings at once."

"Oh?" Asked Shirou fascinated, she wondered if they had become Noble Phantasms "Where are those rings now? Are they here?"

The savant laughed merrily "No, they are not. We would love to have them, but alas that was not to be. The Founder Rings are in the possession of the royal families of Halkeginia, except that of Germania, but I heard they was barbarians anyway. Our land, Tristania, has the Ruby of Water."

"That makes sense" Nodded Shirou, except that bit about Germania being a barbarian country. But she didn't say that as she didn't know anything about the country. They could all be barbarian for all she knew.

"We are here" Said the servant suddenly stopping before a desk with a visibly bore male behind it.

The servant began to talk to the person while give the man a permission paper "Hallo, we are here to get a beginner wand for this young lady here"

The desk man didn't say anything while going over the paper and instead just reached under his desk to pull up a piece of wood with a handle laid it on the disk. Finishing the paper with a nod he pushed the wand towards Shirou.

The girl couldn't help but be disappointed at the anticlimactic affair she she reached out to take the wand, something which the servant noted and laughed at. Shirou threw the man an annoyed glare as her cheeks reddened once again. It seemed to be a habit while she was in the company with this carefree man.

He reminded her a little of Illya, going out of his way to embarrass people for his amusement.

"Seriously though. Magical focuses are very expensive, if you want one that is not the beginner one you will have to wait a long time to get the money. If you spare on you allowance you may be able to effort one after a year or so. If you want a elemental specialized one you may be able to get one at graduation. If you want a specialized one you better get a really good job. That is not even talking about the staff or rings. So take care of that wand, if you break it you may have to take a loan from somebody to get an new one and that is _not_ a good thing."

Explained the servant seriously.

Shirou nodded. She wondered if this man was bipolar.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Tristania academy was a huge facility for teaching first class mages. It teach it's students to use magic from the elements earth, air, fire and water by some of the best teachers in the world. It was universally declared the best mage academy in all of Halkeginia by anyone.

Because of this reputation even aristocratic families from other countries seek to study there. As such the students are mixed nationalities and the teachers likewise are not only from Tristania, because this academy hire only the best.

The academy itself was incredibility large as a building. Arranged so that there was five towers located at the points of an invisible pentagram shape then connected to each other by a thick wall. Each of those towers had a different colored roof, red for fire, blue for water, a white-ish sliver for air, brown for earth and a dark gray for void. Four of the towers was further connected the the main build in the middle of the towers, the tower not connected was the void one. The main building was huge and was vaguely cone shaped, and much more stylish than the outer towers, with a much wider bottom and going into a tip at the top.

The areas between the outer wall and the main build was covered in green grass. On the opposite side of the main gate was a less grand building that was for the servants hired, the building was almost hidden.

It was this academy that Shirou arrived to by carriage four days after getting her wand. Tomorrow would be the start of the school year. Her trip has been a bit rushed for her to make it on time, but at last a room would have been set up for her in advance due to a letter sent by bird. A familiar bird at that.

A maid was waiting for her as soon as she stepped out of the carriage as if she was standing the whole time, the woman gave a bow to this new arrival.

"Greetings my lady Shirou. Welcome to Tristainia academy, we will do our best to make it as pleasant as possible."

Shirou blinked at the greeting. Remembering her lessons from Amparo about how one behave when being greeted when arriving at another noble's place, and gave a grateful smile and a nod to the maid.

"Thank you from having me here"

This maid may not be the owner of the academy, but she figured it would be best to stay on the good side of the help. Shirou had barely resisted the urge to bow back, but she did, because that was how she was supposed to act. And she didn't want to stick out of place by behaving out of the norm. She still was as polite as she could though.

A little bit of the maid's tension seemed to lift at the warm and polite reply, Shirou haven't even notice the woman had been tense before she wasn't anymore.

"If you would follow me I will show you your room"

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The room was big, larger then the size of the living room she had at her home and circular. Most of the space was kept by a giant bed. It looked incredibly soft. There was a big corset of wood at one closet. Besides that there was a desk with a massive mirror, Shirou assumed that was where girl's did their beauty things in the morning. She had really never been inside a girl's room before. There was a small table with an lamp and a chair. Off the side there was a an bath tub.

'Oh, yea. No showers because of no technology. These would have to be filled by hand or magic' Thought Shirou a bit surprised to find it in her room. 'Wait a minute, how did I take a bath in that city?... Better not think to much about it'

Shirou grimaced.

"Do you now like the room" Asked the maid seeing the little girl grimace, feeling a little disappointed. It was her that cleaned this room.

"NO! No." Exclaimed Shirou able to hear the disappointment "I was thinking about something else. The room is perfect, the best I been in!"

The maid couldn't help it, but she giggled at the flushed and panicked child. She stopped horrified afterward, commoners did not giggled at nobles when they was around to hear it, that was a taboo. Horrifying things happened to commoners that offended the nobles, she even knew one that did. She never seen her again. Her eyes found the noble.

She found this new noble smiling at her, a childish happy one. The worry left her. Still nonetheless she returned to her professional persona. This noble girl noticed and her smile faded as her interest in the maid went away as the maid's personalty become fake and distant, recognizing one on the job.

You don't really talk to a guide. You just follow and listen unless you have questions.

"Now the Aviss hall is where the students eat, I will show you that now"

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Shirou fell into her luxurious bed face first and enjoyed the softness of bedsheets as she fell asleep. Wondering how her first day in a magical school is going to go tomorrow.

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	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own what this story was inspired from

Sorry I'm Late. I was kicked into gear by an Yandere… (joke… maybe)

Also sorry for the shorter cap, can't seen to find inspirations on interaction in the school. Please tell me what you think about the world I'm building.

Someone requested for Shirou to have her name changed… don't know how without bringing up identity issues.

The aura was a way to make it seem possible that Nobels to able to be in power for 6000 years without rebels.

Great credit and thanks to souvikkundu0017 for a long list of legendary weapons weapons and their history. Use them later.

Please to not comment on my poor gamma, I know it's bad.

/Made some minor fixes, the rule breaker has changed to Azorth.

By the way… I really need a Beta… and reviews…

())()()()()()

The next morning Shirou was up bright and early, waking up with an adorable yawn "Uwagha"

After getting out of the almost 'heroic' level soft bed she began doing her morning routine, stretching, brushing her hair with a comb before the mirror and noting her hair was still the prestige white that Illya had had. She really liked the hair. It was the feature that that had been most notable about her sister, the thing they drew her glance.

Illya had loved her hair, zealously taking care of it. Something about she had her beloved mother's hair had been the same white, and that both her father and mother and loved playing with it. Shirou in her memory attempted to take as much care of it as she could with all her manly fineness. It was a bit more messy than her sister's, but that was possibly for the best. There was no need to draw up more issues about who she was than there already was.

After the hair the other thing that would draw the eyes was Illya's burning red eyes that seemed to shine as times. They shifted to express her mood, when she had been happy they would light up in a happy ruby red color, but while she was angry they would be swirling pools of not yet shred blood. They would however always be the same unnaturally luminous red.

Speaking of Illya's eyes, how do one use mystic eyes?

Illya had the mystical eyes of binding, something that she had used on her at their very first meeting. She put the matter out of her mind for another time.

The school uniform, the female one, was a brown cape held together at the front by the pentagram lock, a white shirt underneath and a skirt. Luckily for Shirou the school allowed a lot of modification to the base uniform, and so instead of a shirt Shirou got black pants instead. Which was more or less the male uniform.

She was immensely happy about not wearing a skirt.

Then Shirou was out of the door and finding no one in the hallway, it was very early after all. The servants was up and was beginning to work, some of them gave the noble a look of surprise as she went past them. It was rare that the young nobles are up early after all.

She went to a quiet out of the place spot in order to practice the spells that was in the book that Amparo had given her. They was beginner spells, ones she would learn here at the school, they were her first year books. Reason she was practicing as much as she could was this was a prodigious academy and anyone except her already had been given lessons. Even the other new nobles was given lessons before coming here, but because the time to the school start was so short for Emiya there wasn't time for her to be given some.

She had practiced on the trip of course, but she honestly found magic too fascinating not to practice anytime she could. She had practiced almost every single second on the trip after all. She also wanted to practice her magecraft.

Now every stick she used 'reinforce' on didn't bust into dust, instantly anyway. She also used one of her own created spells, this one was like Traceing which was an offshoot to Projection only as an offshoot to 'Reinforcement' and was created unintentionally. It's name was 'Structural grasp'.

It was a spell that Shirou had used lots of times when he helped repairing stuff in her former life before the war, it was also a key part of the spell Traceing.

It could be called both Shirou's and archer's greatest spell. Not only their greatest, but the core one that allowed them the strength they had. The ability which he had used 'Structural grasp' was so good Archer was able to even read the past and history of an object as well as powers and personality, it was what gave Archer the blueprints which he had created his fake swords from, it was what told him the story of the weapon. He was also able to read his enemies with it, and as such was able to predict their next moves. Enabling him as a human to keep up with entities that should be so far out of his level it wasn't even funny. Archer was so good with the spell that he could cast with through his eyes and through memories.

Shirou used it in the past to see how much he could reinforce things such as herself and her wooden sword before she become damaged due to overload and made her heart implode. It was what allowed her to stand along side Saber in the Holy Grail War and was the reason she didn't die instantly there.

If she did not know how much her body could take she would have died from her own spell before her enemies could have touched her. After being fused with Archer's arm she was able to use Structural grasp on the Jewel sword through Illya's memory of her ancestor having seen it.

Illya was a Homunculus model that has heritable memories from previous models of same type, and the original, Justeaze Lizrich von Einzbern, had seen the jewel sword which enable Illya to remember it and show it to Shirou. Illya wasn't a Justeaze-type model, but she was born of one and heavy modified in her mother's womb to allow for as much power as possible.

Sadly, Structural grasp is a delicate spell which require incredible control of one's magic. Shirou at the moment didn't have that control, and like with the reinforcement spell it destroyed what she used it on.

But she was working on her control as much as she could using grass she picked up, trying to reinforce it without tearing it apart on a molecular level. It was hard.

At last she had a weapon if she needed it, she could literally dust anything she touched. With her unnatural agility and strength she gained from Archer she was not defenseless in this new world. Though the act of 'dusting' a person wasn't really appealing to Shirou.

It was a bit unnerving to think that even if Shirou was physically weaker than she was, the world never looked more fragile then now. It was like the world was made of glass that could break asunder at the merest bit of force.

She had the ability to kill anything that wasn't protected by magic or had an absurd ability to withstand it with the simple act of overflowing them with pure power. Shirou looked at her fragile looking hands in deep thought. It wouldn't even leave that much evidence behind, a bundle of dust and nothing more. Magical dust maybe, but dust nonetheless.

Deciding not to think about it anymore she went back to practice.

The irony of having to limit her power when in the past she had so little of it was not lost on her.

After practice she went to breakfast. Seeing the other students for the first time. It was quite interesting how fast the hierarchy was being made from mentioning of titles and connections. How fast allies and enemies was chosen.

In particular a small pink haired one seemed to instantly recognize her family traditional enemy at a glance, and opposite, heated words seemed to be fired off there. They was apparently from very influential rival families both of them.

Shirou was feeling bemused by how serious these kids was taking their status, and not in the 'I have the duty and reputation of a noble of a good family to perform and protect', but in a snotty arrogant 'My daddy are better than yours' kind of way.

The new nobles are keeping a bit to themselves, though Shirou was able to spot some with determined look seeking to mangle with the old blood families to form connections for later in life. Not that the new nobles wasn't trying to establish a hierarchy of their own, arguing about who was better and loudest.

Shirou didn't really want to be part of that, and as such didn't really add anything to the conversation, or brag fest as it was, beyond her status as a new noble and didn't put in a fanciful story about how the one picked her killed a dragon and then teach her how to do it. That boy was creative in his story telling, not bad at it at any rate and had a small following listening to every word that came out of his mouth. All of them knew it was a lie, maybe, but the boy had a talent to spin a tale.

However Shirou had vastly underestimated the power of appearance. Shirou was beautiful, was graceful and since she was here, magical power.

The others could unconsciously sense that this white haired new noble will go high places in the world, and thus wanted to associate with her... or make her their minion.

"Hallo, My name is Anne. What's your name?" Asked one of new nobles of Shirou. She was a girl maybe about three years older than Shirou looked like. Which was about twelve years old. Making this girl look like fifteen. She was reaching out her hand in a rather demanding greeting.

She was cute. She has stern face famed by dark copper colored hair. Her month set in a determined bend that made it easy for Shirou, who wasn't the best at reading people even at the best of time, to see this girl had ambition.

Shirou couldn't stand against such an expression, much less on such a little girl. Forgetting conveniently that at the moment that she was the smaller girl. Not that it would have changed anything anyway, Shirou felt mature like that no matter her form. She had been in her later years of her teenage life before the 'Change' as she began to call it in her mind.

So she reached out and took the stranger's hand and smiled, no need to be rude after all. She wasn't Taiga Fujimura after all. On that note Shirou thought about how fortunate it was to have older siblings such as Taiga who lead by showing. Yes, it was rather good to have a sibling in Taiga, adopted/guardian she may be, how else would a child know what _not_ to do. It was nice to have someone to do all the mistakes for you. All you had to do was to learn off them, Shirou mentally sweat dropped as memories of Taiga demanding food entered her mind, And feed them.

"My name is Shirou, it is nice to meet you Anne."

Anne's shoulder dropped as tension left them at the friendly greeting and Shirou couldn't help but frown a bit in her mind at how everyone she seem to meet was so tense.

The girl already had other girls around her, two in fact, so she was kind of a leader. She quickly began to talk together, mostly on what they expected to be good at. Fire, Water, Earth or Wind.

"Father thinks I could be good at Wind magic" Said one of the two followers of Anne who introduced herself as Blanche. She was overweight but not much, her father had been one of the rare wealthy commoners that got hired to positions of power within a nobles household. Blanche was obviously a father's girl as she makes a reference to him every second sentence. She was proud of him.

Shirou breathed in as subtly as she could through her nose, detecting the faint smell of water coming from Blanche. It seemed that the girl's father was wrong in this case, it was water magic that would come easiest to this girl. Her ability to smell magic can not lie, at last she didn't think so.

She have gotten memories from Archer, or rather instincts. The knowledge about magic sensing, which manifested in them as a smell was one of them. It was just something she knew how to do one day.

The white haired girl didn't share her knowledge with Blanche as she didn't want to stand out in such a manner. And the ability to detect one's elemental affinity would undoubtedly make one stand out. The people here worship magic so such ability would make her known to all the important people _everywhere_ within the month. Such a thing was not something she could effort.

She instead smiled politely.

The other follower of Anne disagreed with Blanche's assessment of her magical affinity.

"I think you would be better suited for earth magic" Remarked the girl that had introduced herself as Myrtle as she gave a subtle glance at Blanche's big boned figure. Anne gave a warning glance at her for the remark and she smiled as she backed off. This one was thin, unhealthy so. She didn't talk about about her parents at all. Shirou suspected her to be a street kid.

Blanche didn't notice the slight at her figure, reminding obvious as she thought over the possibility of being an earth mage. She didn't really like earth, but she didn't dislike it neither. It was something she walked on every day. Nothing more, nothing less.

"I suppose that would be acceptable too, though I would prefer Wind. Myrtle, what element do you think you have?" Blanche admitted and then asked of her freind.

Myrtle grinned a little too wide to seem fully sane "Fire"

Anne ignored the girl's wide smile and turned towards Shirou "What element do you think you have?"

Shirou smiled back "I would guess Earth"

Her having the Earth element wasn't merely a guess, she had tried some of the more advanced spells from the book Amparo gave her. None of them worked as magic was more complicated than that, it was just that the earth spells didn't fail as horribly as the other ones.

It still wasn't pretty though. Who knew earth could turn such a grotesque color?

Plus her origin was Sword. Or rather it was, who knew what it was now?

"What about you Anne, what do you think your element could be?" Questioned Blanche curiously looking at the copper haired teen.

"Mine would be Fire" Stated Anne looking too sure of it for her not to have some kind foreknowledge. Like Shirou and her attempts at elemental magic, which favored earth. Anna likely did the same but her magic favored fire magic more then the rest.

It could be she simply was discovered early and having time to self study before coming to Tristania Academy of magic and had enough time to find out proper what her element was.

A subtle sniff from Shirou confirmed that Anne was a fire alined mage. She smelled of still warm ash. Myrtle however smelled like wind and dust. Shirou wasn't sure what that meant, the duel smell, but she assumed that it likewise Myrtle had affinity for two different elements and not them combined.

Though that may come in time if the girl was powerful and talented enough.

All the information that could be gleamed through her magic sniffing nose was incredible, it made her sad that she was unable to smell her own magic. All that information that she would be able to gather about her own magic would help immensely. Her own scent was however marked as normal and unimportant and filtered out by instinct. It would require nearly the same amount of control over one's body and mind as to stop one's own heart as to interfere in that.

The instinct that deep rooted.

At last that was how Shirou liked to think it was, she didn't really know as she didn't study such things. All she knew that she could not smell her own magical favor and she couldn't stop her own heart. She didn't try that hard on stopping her heart though.

Moving her mind to other things Shirou left the unpleasant subject of stopping hearts just in time to see the headmaster stand up. Getting the attention of everyone there and the talks died down.

The headmaster was old, very old. He was had a large gray beard that his chest in length. His equally gray hair had a similarly length, reaching his chest. He wore a plain black robe, something that he didn't have to wear but preferred over something more fancy. A personal choice.

His magical focus of choice was an old staff. It looked dry and brittle from it age, but otherwise well cared for. Clearly this was a tool he had favored and used for a long time. He smiled at those before him.

"Welcome to Tristania Academy of magic everyone. I am Headmaster Osmond, the leader of this holy ground of teaching. Both me and the teaching staff are pleased to welcome new and old students into our halls once more. To the new I will ensure you that you are in the most capable of hands regarding your education as a mage. We hire only the very best of teachers, just as we accept only the best of students. I hope you can live up to our and you country's expectations."

Osmond's face gained a hard and unforgiving touch, his eyes of stone.

"One warning though. No fighting or dueling are allowed doing your life within these walls. This Academy is _neutral_ grounds. Whatever enemies you have, your family have or your country have do not matter here. Any attempt at fighting or sabotage result is expulsion in disgrace. I am not asking you to be friendly, but I am demanding you to be civil. I say it again this academy is holy ground, this institution is dedicated towards learning the teachings of the holy father of magic, Founder Brimir"

With a wave of his hand Osmond called the servants in with the food, as they did at once, as he face relaxed into that of a normal old man.

"Enough with the talk. I hope you will enjoy your stay here. For now let's eat breakfast and let us get on our way. Remember to study hard" He set down and began to lecherously eye one of the maids. Maids with maid outfits and all. Shirou may also have stared a bit.

She was male at heart after all.

After the meal the new nobles and the old nobles split off to different classes.

()()()()()

"My name is Paulette Affré!" Said their teacher quietly, but her voice had a penetrating quality that she may as well have been shouting. Clear and delivered with intent. Every single tone demanded to be heard. A voice that even if she whispered what she wanted to say the whole room would be able to hear her clearly.

Her gray eyes coldly observing those she would have to teach with indifference. Her graying hair set primly, but practically. She was an elder lady that was beautiful despite her old age. She aged like fine wine as the saying go, gaining more depth as time went.

"I am you teacher for two weeks. Within that time frame I will teach you the basics of the conduct of Nobles, your new status and what it entails of duty and what it gives you in rights. In other words, I am here to teach you what you need in your new place in this world. That include history, math, basic magic lore and manners."

She waited a bit for her students to absorb her introduction speech. Though not long enough for their attention to wander.

"First I will start with why you as new nobles as important to our society. Something you likely do not know if you are not related to a noble family. The truth is that the chance of being born with magic is low, even for nobles."

"In fact, the only people that are certain to have a child with the holy gift of magic is the royal family. From there the chance to have a child with the magic gift is rather low. So low that under half the children born to two nobles have it"

"That is why most high ranked nobles decide to adopt magical talented children above the low chance their own have the talent. A noble's safe bet of a successor to his or her title and position." Again Paulette paused to make the information be absorbed. "Magically talented people like those in this room"

Many the in the room stiffed at the implications of their teacher's words.

Paulette wasn't interested in being subtle however. The whole game of hints wasn't really her thing, so she went out and said it.

"At the end of the year there is a festival in the capital, You can show your worth there to the high ranked nobles. If you do good more people will be interested in you, both to hire you after graduation or just to seek you out to form a connection with a talented individual. In rare cases you may be approached by a pair seeking to adopt you. It all depends on you and how much you learn doing the year"

"The festival is one of the most important event for young nobles to seek out useful friendships and contracts as well as know where they stand magically and talent wise compared to other nobles. I hope this with be enough initiative for you to do your best."

Poulette had the whole room captivated by her words seemly without effort. Though there was a few of her students that looked disinterested in the subject of social standing. That was fine that was their choice. If a student didn't want to learn or take what was teach seriously than that was their own choice.

Without much pause she continued her talk. There was still more information to cover.

"Now I will do as short and very basic overview over our social system and rankings within this country. At the very top is the royal family. They rule the country and everyone within. As of right now there is a queen after the king tragically died about a half a year ago. Next in the line is the princess. Then downward, Duke/duchess, viceroy/vicereine, earl and count/countess, viscount/viscountess, Baron/baronetess, and lastly the knight/dame"

"Likewise they have level of territory depending on their rank, likewise from the top down. These ranks aren't all of those that are as I have not included royal advisers and the Archmage and where they rank, as that is more complicated matters that we don't currently have time for. I merely listed those that can own land"

"Of those titles, only the title of Knight or Dame are achievable by those born outside of a noble family, and that is only if said individual is well liked and made accomplishments worthy of the queen's notice. The rest is hereditary."

"That means even now there is an upper limit in what you can achieve by talent alone. That is why for those that are really ambitious need to really impress at the festival if you want to rise above that barricade. Good luck. Lesson over, dismissed"

()()()()()()

Shirou was in her room, looking at books on history she had borrowed from the library. As she was doing so she thought about her strange situation, and more importantly what to do about it.

There was nothing she wanted more than to be back in her old world in her body, with Illya alive and well in this one. To be at Sakura's side as they put their life after the Holy Grail War together with Rin, Rider and Illya. To be with the people that she had formed such a close bond with.

There was truly nothing she wished more and have Sakura and herself cook dinner in her own house with Saber, Rin, Rider, Illya and Taiga sitting at the table waiting impatiently, except for Rider who is patient by nature, for dinner to be served. Having a heated discussion going between Rin and Illya, which Saber and Taiga would get themselves involved in with Rider attempting and failing to play mediator between the hot heads.

However that was not to be. Saber was dead, Shirou had killed her herself. Stabbed to death with the dagger "Azorth''. A dagger given to her by Rin.

Shirou felt tears in her eyes as she thought about it. Saber had been a friend, and a sort of mentor to her. Then Saber had been stolen by Caster and later corrupted by Dark Sakura. The servant had blocked her way to Sakura. There haven't been a choice for Shirou who had decided to put Sakura above the world then to go through Saber who was blocking the way to her.

And through she went, with steel through Saber's heart.

Not that it had been an easy fight, as Shirou had been too close to death more times doing it than she could count. Her injuries had also been too close to lethal, not to mention the mess overusing her magic had left her.

Any sane man would have left it at that and given up if he wanted to live, however at the time she wasn't a sane man and thus continued on.

Illya was also… not dead, but not 'alive'. Her sister wasn't 'gone' but wasn't 'there'.

Then more than that, Shirou was in a whole other world. And that more than anything else was her problem right now.

And one that she knew she had no chance to solve.

Oh, She would try wholeheartedly to go back to her own world, But the chance of arriving to her world is infinitely small.

That was the making the Jewel sword that act as a medium for Zelretch Schweinorg to use the second Magic, also known as Kaleidoscope. Magic that work on the idea that parallel worlds exist.

Which they do.

She had made the sword for Rin to use as a boost to her power doing the confrontation with Dark Sakura.

Making the sword required a bit of understanding of how the magic worked, something that the sword rather than Rin or Illya had taught Shirou. Tracing is a magic ability that allow her to remake an almost exact copy of any sword or weapon she wanted. But she couldn't do so without understanding what she was making. She understand what she was making through the spell Structural Grasp, which like the tracing she had far beyond norm in ability to use, that can when the spell is used on a weapon tell her _how_ it was made and more importantly how it was _used_.

Just looking at the jewel sword had given Shirou more knowledge about the Second magic than Rin's family had figured in generations.

And that was why she knew the impossibility that returning to her world was.

The concept of an alternative world is a world that in a different world someone did something different than the first world, thus making that world different. In some alternative worlds the difference may be so small you wouldn't have noticed if you had been switched into one, while other worlds may be so alien you would be unable to live there.

In some that distinct action that made the alternative universe may be a war that went differently, or it could be something as simple as whatever to or not getting out of bed that one morning.

However what if every single action you take or have not taken makes an alternative universe running alongside yours? Every single twitch of every single of your muscles done differently? Every single thought you could have thought?

There is a near infinite amount of breaching realities occurring from yours within seconds.

Then what if a second later every single of those realities breach themselves into their own near countless universes? Then a second later those together with their original reality and that's reality's original reality split yet again… and again… and again.

Even more, what if it was not just your actions you may have done or not done that split into an alternative reality?

Everyone around you have their own actions they could have done that they have done in another universe. Every single second near infinite about of realities spawn of everyone, and in that reality everyone could react in infinitely different ways to that action that then spawn their own realities and everyone could react in infinitely different ways in those. Creating a chain-reaction that makes so many realities appear that it was uncomprehending by the human brain.

Then what if it was not only humans that create those realities?

Animals, wind, water, earth, and fire are the simple ones. But what about something as big as our solar system? However little things that happens every thousandth of a second that could have gone that little differently? That about the whole of the galactic entirety and whatever life that may or may not have been?

And that is only what amount of alternative universes that spawn of that every instant.

Now think about what amount of realities that had already been created before you thought about it. From before the Big Bang that created everything to this very moment.

The word you could use is infinite.

And that would still not be enough, not with people with the ability to interfere beyond their own reality such as Zelretch. Or people that like her had been displaced into another that wasn't her own, and with the concept of the Kaleidoscope should could have appeared inside everyone of those universes that is at anytime at any location.

To find one's own reality within all of those that exist was impossible. No matter how many countless realities that have spawned from that one since she disappeared from it.

Then to make the matter even more impossible is to find a way to travel into alternative realities in the first place.

Even Zelretch can't do that. He can only get immaterial things like a knowledge, power, or when wanting to humiliate people with who they could have been, a personality into this world. Also he can't make contract to a world where he do not exist as a user of the Second magic.

Shirou who is here do not exist on the world she left behind, making the matter of returning that much harder.

She would attempt to get back to her own reality, but she didn't have much hope for success.

Moving her hand she wiped the tears from her eyes, attempting to read as hopelessness began to set in as the full situation began to make itself cruelly clear to her. To comprehend just how far from home she was.

Tears began to fall down on the book she gave up on reading, closing it softly before the pages got too wet. She just sat and cried as she looked out at the window at the two moons.

"Sakura, Rin, Illya, Saber... I miss you so much it hurts"

()()()()()

Poulette was once again standing before her class and was pleased to see that her previous lesson had motivated them and they was properly listening to her. With an invisible smile in her heart, because her face couldn't do anything other than be stern, she began another lecture.

"Now a lesson on magic and it's tiers. Depending on which tier of mage you are the amount of respect you get increase. Higher level mages gets more then magic, they get higher amount of authority and even a better salary"

"If two mages of similar noble rank wants something the mage with the highest magic tier wins and get first right. As you may know being a mage get you a salary from our government, that salary depends on how good a mage you are"

"There is many other little advantages to being a better mage gives you, but we will go over those later"

Paulette paused to make sure that her words was understood by the class, and from the ambition shining in her students eyes they did. With a hidden smile she went on.

"Now, I will go over the various mage ranks going from the bottom to the top. The first is the non ranked, what you are at the moment. Those non ranked are what take up the most numbers of those able to use magic. Roughly around 50% of any magic user are there. A high number, but I believe all of you will be able to advance to the next level."

"That level being the Dot mage. Someone that made connection to one element, something we will go over later. Of those able to use magic you will find roughly 30% stuck at this rank. This rank get's you the biggest boost of magic potency as it is said that one of this rank is five times more powerful than a non ranked"

"The rank after Dot is the Line mage. This level are a mage that are able to connect two connections to the elements at the same time. Around 15% is around here. It is said that a Line mage is double in power than a Dot mage but three times the versatility"

"Then there is the Triangle mage. There is only around 4.75% that reach this level. Those of this level of rank don't quite double in raw power, but it is close."

"Square class mages are the highest tier you can hope to reach, and you can not be sure of that as the road to this peek are near impossible to reach. Only 0.25 reach here, Or in other words one mage in every 400 that try. Those of this level have more power than anyone would ever need, or so they say. Due to the amount of destruction a fully charged Square class spell would do it is not tested how much power those of this class have compared to those of the other ranks"

"Of course, there is the unreachable rank that was said to belong to the Funder, the Pentagon class. But as I said that is unreachable and not something you would need to think about. However it is said that the current Archmage is close to getting there, but that is only unreliable rumors and heresy. Nonetheless, avoid drawing the ire of that woman at all costs"

"I will go over how one determine one's element later and how to judge one's mage class in another lecture."

Poulette nodded "This conclude this class, dismissed"

()()()()()

Anne is ambitious. Though still just a girl she has grand, if vague, dreams for her future. Her path was not yet clear in how to reach those uncertain goals she had, but she was planning as hard as she could.

It was a bit of a dilemma not knowing where she wanted to end up, yet unable to settle for less than the very best possible.

Yet the most essential step to that distant top was attained. A step that depended solely on her being lucky. That being having been born with magic.

To her luck she was born with the ability to use magic, and luckier still was that she seemed to have the ability to become a powerful user at that. Though her affinity was for fire, which carried a bad reputation among the common folk.

It wasn't something she cared about much, but she could remember the genuine fear on the grown up people where she grew up whatever the subject 'fire magi' come up. Mostly because higher ranked soldiers often have that destructive element and use it rather freely when an 'upstart' commoner needs to be kicked down.

Fire also being the element that left the most destroyed land and buildings in it's passing. The other elements could be just a dangerous, but they didn't leave an inferno on somebodies corn field.

Still Anne herself couldn't have been more pleased than having the fire element. She could feel it, her magic burning in her veins. Power warming her inside out, waiting eagerly to be called upon. Her confidence was a result of this pleasant feeling. There was nothing like the feeling of power at you back to push yourself forward.

That was the feeling that gave birth to the vague ambition she had. She wanted all she could grab, because she wanted it and just because she could. It was ambition just for the feeling of having an ambition.

It felt great.

Now another challenge was in her way yet again. Her lack of noble family.

Anne didn't care, she could only smile in face of opposition, her fire promised that anything that stood in her path would burn soon enough. In fact she was grateful for the resistance, this would make her fire burn that much brighter.

She would only grow stronger in the face of opposition.

()()()()()()

With glare Poulette stood before her class once again. Every and any student who had thoughts about slacking in their studies felt a predator just stepping into the room. One that could possibly read minds.

Poulette did _something _and the tension rose as invisible weight began to press down on the class. Something that continued to rise ever so slowly. Even if the pressure was becoming unbearably for some of the less fortitude nobody said anything, or rather they was unable to say anything.

They had the feeling of worthlessness. It was if not only was their bodies being crushed slowly, their very souls was under siege. Quickly tearing down their walls of self-worth. The difference in power… was _crushing_.

It was as they who couldn't resist, was unworthy.

Then it was gone.

"This was a mage's aura." Lectured Poulette coldly. "Magical power brought forth by my will with no purpose."

More than a few students was catching their breath, but some didn't have to. The difference in talent and potential between each individual was obvious to Poulette. It was not just about power that made you able to deal with an enemy's aura, there was also mental fortitude.

The more mental powerful you was the less magical power was required to withstand an aura, and the opposite was also true, the more power the less fortitude was needed to prevail.

"All of you project an aura, faint as it may be. That was what made you pass the Mage Test in the first place." She gave a hard look at those that looked most affected. "If you think this is bad, then think how a person without any magic would feel. Now sit straight and listen!"

The students did so, some looking rather sick.

"Good." Poulette said "Now, a Mage's aura has several uses. The one I will go over today is connected to the Mage Rank. As you may have noted the artifact around your neck, the pendant. At the end of each tip is a small gem"

Everyone looked at their pentagram pendant. Indeed there was a small dark gem at the end of each tip of the pentagram.

"Now I will show you once again my aura, though this time not as strongly. Remember to observe my artifact." she demanded as she held a pendant of her own up in her hand for the class to observe.

Again the feeling of press and domination, however it wasn't nearly as strong as the first time as their teacher had promised. Some of the students were visible getting sick by it nevertheless.

As the press rose the gem at the tip of the pentagram in her hand began to glow, the light was growing in strength as more power filled the room. As Poulette stopped releasing power the glow died and went out.

"That was a Dot mage's magical aura" The female teacher put the artifact away. "It is said that a triangle class mage have the ability to kill non-nobles with their aura alone. Likewise the square class can kill lesser mages with their aura."

"If you are confused where to stand in terms of power and standing, you merely have to release you magic and observe your own artifact. However, releasing your aura in places outside of a classroom or your own room is forbidden."

"You will learn how to draw out your aura in another class at a later time"

"Class dismissed"


End file.
